My first exposure to the Silithids as an Alliance character was when Kinless, my Night Elf Hunter, began exploring Tanaris. Up until that point in his career the worst he had to fear from hardshelled beasts were the scorpids of Desolace and the spiders of Duskwood. Down in Tanaris a hive has apparently burst from the soil with skittering and flying creatures.

The Horde characters are exposed to the Silithids very early on. In the Barrens there are two Silithid area where adventurers are sent to collect eggs. As a warrior I was tasked to collect a twitching leg of one. In the Shimmering Flats there is another hive of them. In Un’Goro Crater, past Tanaris, there is yet another hive or two of them.

And down in Silithus they are everywhere.

If it sounds like an invasion of your home by roaches, it most certainly ought to, because it is. That’s their plan, that’s what these bug want. To take over Kalimdor.

If you at all play with your eyes open you will have realized the Alliance and the Horde are united in attempting to stop this. On Smolderthorn the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj are open and the portal to the ruinds of Ahn’Qiraj beckoned.

Too, promises of a nice ring, cloak, and weapon set, earned not as loot drops off the bosses per se, but from scarabs and idols found there in the ruins, and when presented with the necessary reputation, your gear to help fight them will be provided to you by the Cenarian Hold.

A new instance, our first time there. With the help of someone a bit more experience there than we could be, we managed to kill two bosses.

Kurinnaxx, the Sandreaver was the first boss we met. The sandtraps he uses were the worst trouble I had. They hurt, they silence, and a silenced Shaman taking damage is a very sad person. The raid did not survive this first contact. The second time we knew just what to expect, and we sent him back to the depths from which he’d crawled.

That was quite nice for us. Downing Kurinnaxx was easier than our first downing the Priestess Jeklikk (Bat Aspect) in Zul’Gurub. (Of course at the time we were geared with equipment from UBRS and Stratholme and such. Now we’re in Molten Core equipment. Gear matters.)

After this battle we cleaned the ichor off the armor, divvied out the loot, and proceeded to the next encounter. General Rajaxx. The mighty Qiraji who commands the Qiraji armies in battle.

This was an interesting fight. Suffice to say we decided to let the Lieutenant General Andorov, a Human in the most minimal chest armor, and his four Kaldorei Elite Night Elves, looking decidedly more suitable for battle than their human leader, simply watch us initially. That involved taking down 7 successive waves of Qiraji Swarmguard Needlers and Warriors. The last member of each wave we kept alive as we fully recovered health and mana.

The last of the last wave killed, General Rajaxx comes out to attack us. The NPC’s now join, or are asked, to help. This was a little confusing for me. My heals didn’t seem to be working on me. There is an odd attack of the General’s, but apparently his attack takes “half of your health.” Half, then half, then half, then half = never actually being killed by it. This doesn’t occur to me until I sit here recounting the event. Alas we did not succeed in keeping LTG Andorov alive this time. But General Rajaxx was ours.

Following this encounter we set out for the next boss. It was running late, but we did manage to get Buru the Gorger’s shell off. But that wasn’t enough. Not this time.

We all admitted the Ruins of AQ were a fun place and we look forward to our next forays into it’s walls.